Introduction: What is this blog?

"Time to Face the Music" sounds a bit like a political blog, doesn't it?  Well, this introductory post is here to tell you that it's not.  This is a music review and commentary blog.  Here, I review albums, songs, and sometimes talk about big news in the music industry such as XXL's annual Freshman Class.  I mostly listen to and review hip hop/rap music and sometimes sprinkle in some pop or R&B in between.  Now that you get the gist of it, here's a more in-depth look at what happens on this blog:

Album/Mixtape/EP Reviews

I give my thoughts on whatever piece of music came out each week and give it a score out of 5 (more on this later).

Single Reviews

Every week I take a look at the singles that came out and give my thoughts.  Unlike my album reviews, the ratings I give singles are "like," "dislike," or "ehhhh."  I will also include songs from newly released albums to check out.

What am I listening to?

Every week I will basically give you guys a listening report from my last.fm page.  I will tell you what songs get played the most as well as what artists and albums get played the most.

Best of Monthly/Yearly

At the end of every month, normally after the last Friday, I rank all the albums I listened to as well as my top 10 songs.  At the end of every year, I release a bunch of lists detailing the best and worst albums and songs.  I will rank my top 10 albums and top 100 songs, as well as my top 10 worst albums and songs.  Year-end lists will be released after the last Friday in December (December 28).

Album Revisits

I give reviews of albums I missed or ones I listened to before.  They are the same as my normal reviews, except that I'm not giving them on time.

Artist Reviews

This is where I give my thoughts on new artists.  I will pick 5 songs or maybe even a whole project and give that a listen.  Then I will talk about their voice, flow, lyrical content, beat selection, and whether or not I enjoyed their music.  You will start seeing these by the time the 2018 XXL Freshman Class is announced.

News Commentary

Every once in a while, I will post something about the major storylines in music and give my take.  Since this blog is more focused on reviewing music, you will see less of this.

Now that I've said all that, I will talk about how I review music.  Basically, I have a formula that separates my thoughts into different categories.  Each section goes like this:

Introduction/Context

This sets the tone for the review.  Before getting into my thoughts about the album, I briefly talk about the artist as well as what happened in between an artist's releases.

Pros/Cons

Here is where I talk about the positive and negative aspects of an album.

So how were the features?

If an artist decides to feature other artists on their album, I will review their contributions and give them a "like," "dislike," or an "ehhhh."  If an artist doesn't choose to collaborate with other artists, this section won't be present.

So how were the singles?

I will review each single that came out before the album individually.  I will review singles that get released on all platforms, which means songs that get leaked don't count.  They will be given a "like," "dislike," or an "ehhhh."

Favorite/Least Favorite Tracks

This is where I elaborate on tracks I liked or disliked.

Conclusion/Score

I will summarize my review in a sentence or two and give it a score out of 5.  Here is what each score indicates:

1/5 - Terrible: It was a painful listen.  There were little to no redeeming qualities and I wish I never spent 40-80 minutes of my life on it.

2/5 - Bad: It was a boring listen.  It doesn't sound completely terrible and may have a redeeming quality that could bring the score up.  However, that redeeming quality will barely weigh into the album's overall quality.

3/5 - Okay: It was an interesting listen.  There are some great moments, but just as many bad moments.

4/5 - Good: It was a nice listen.  There could be at least 1 glaring flaw that could bring the score down, such as a bad song or a boring section in the album's tracklisting.

5/5 - Great: It was an enjoyable listen.  Keep in mind that an album doesn't have to be completely perfect to get this score.  It may have no flaws or it has some minor flaws that are easy to overlook.

After giving my score, I'll rank the album among an artist's discography just for fun.

And there you have it.  This post was a bit long, but I wanted to give people an idea of what "Time to Face the Music" is about.  I hope to keep up with the constant stream of releases and have some fun with it, and I hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I do making them.